PISCATAWAY, N.J. (AP) — Kyle Monangai ran for 132 yards and a touchdown and Rutgers held off Washington 21-18 on Friday night when Huskies kicker Grady Gross missed a 55-yard attempt as time expired.
Rutgers won its Big Ten opener to improve to 4-0 for the first time since 2012. Washington (3-2, 1-1) was playing its first Big Ten road game.
Washington cut it to three with 1:40 left on Will Rogers III’s 12-yard touchdown pass to Denzel Boston and a 2-point conversion pass to Keleki Latu. The Huskies got the ball back with 35 seconds left, with Gross’ attempt to force overtime sailing wide left.
“Our guys are learning how to do it,” Rutgers coach Greg Schiano said. “We’re learning one step at a time. They (Washington) are a good offensive football team and they’re hard to tackle. We missed a boatload of tackles, but we made them when we needed to. So, really happy for our guys. I’m proud of the way they fought.”
Washington had a 521-299 advantage in total yards, but missed three field goals, was penalized six times for 69 yards and went 2 for 12 on third downs.
Rogers was 26 of 36 for 306 yards and two TDs. He entered the game as the leading active FBS quarterback in career passing attempts, completions and completion percentage and second in passing yards and TDs.
Rutgers took a 21-10 lead on Samuel Brown V’s 37-yard touchdown run up the middle with 10:57 left.
The Huskies had cut it to 14-10 on Rogers’ 51-yard TD pass to Boston down the right sideline with 4:23 left in the third.
Monangai gave the Scarlet Knights a 7-3 edge with a 1-yard TD run early in the second quarter.
The senior running back, who led the Big Ten in rushing last season, wasn’t surprised at his team’s resiliency.
“I didn’t learn anything new,” Monangai said. “I knew already we’re a resilient team. We’re going to keep on leaning on each other when times get hard. Like I said, we know what we are. We’re just trying to go through it every Saturday.”
Athan Kaliakmanis threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to Ian Strong with 30 seconds left in the half to make it 14-3. The score was set up after Washington was called for an illegal substitution after it blocked Jai Patel’s field goal attempt.
Washington’s Vince Holmes ran onto the field, thinking the play was dead and the Huskies had recovered. But the ball was still loose. The 5-yard penalty gave Rutgers a first down and the Scarlet Knights scored on the next play.
“It was a game that went 60 minutes,” first-year Washington coach Jedd Fisch. “But I told the team, you can’t play two teams. You can’t play ourselves and our opponent. When you have a penalty after a blocked field goal and when you miss three field goals, there’s too many things that came back to get us.
“Not to take anything away from Rutgers, but we didn’t handle our penalties and that’s the saddest part of the night.”
Kaliakmanis was 14 of 24 for 115 yards.
UP NEXT
Washington: Hosts defending national champion Michigan next Saturday
Rutgers: At Nebraska next Saturday.
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